Redeemed
by Firecadet
Summary: A what might have been, had Jaina not prevented Vestara from boarding the Rude Awakening, featuring Ben Skywalker and Vestara Khai, set on Coruscant after Abeloth's defeat.
1. You do not have to say anything

Redeemed

Vestara was surprised at how welcoming Coruscant initally seemed. It had seemed a massive and daunting place on the short holos her new companions had shown her, attempting to give her a chance to get accustomed to the scale of the planet she would call home. Her father had been killed, along with the grand master of the Sith by the Skywalkers, and she had found herself playing a part in their escape which forever kept her from Kesh. Now, with Luke Skywalker's exile officially declared over by an inter-rim chief of state, with the preferred chief, Leia Organa, away from Coruscant all three occupants of the Jade Shadow were returning to Coruscant.

As the Jade Shadow approached her landing pad, the area around it was thronging with journalists, dozens of them bearing the tabards of sensationalist media providers, with only a few bearing the tabards of more respectable news organisations like the Perre Needmo newshour. As Vestara looked out over the crowd she asked "Master Skywalker, permission to deploy laser cannons?"

"Denied." Luke's reply was instantaneous. "Vaping journalists, as tempting as it may be, I will admit, is a criminal offence here on Coruscant, even for Force users. However, I do not think that exposing you and Ben to the gutter press is a good idea.

"Dad, you have a plan?" Ben asked, having secretly been dreading the moment when he would be dragged before a news conference.

"yes, I think I do, Luke replied, mentally running through his options.

Once everything was in position, Luke briefly fired the altitude jets, creating a momentary smokescreen around the Jade Shadow. Before the smoke cleared, Ben and Vestara sped out of the aft docking bay, which scissored shut without a clang, making it almost impossible to know that the swoop now heading for the workers canteen had departed from the Jade Shadow. The two riders were dressed in generic work overalls, and there was little evidence of their true identities; aside from Ben's hair colour.

As the swoop reached the picket line of news speeders, one of the craft dropped down onto an intercept course. Ben's response was to floor it.

As the swoop accelerated away, several other speeders, their cam operators panning their cams onto the fleeing swoop as they did so, gave chase.

The swoop, now flat out, was juddering as it approached the sound barrier. Despite the craft's speed, the speeders being driven in pursuit were slowly gaining. Ben grinned, as he rolled towards a busy traffic route.

Luke had barely made it clear of the press conference before he was approached by two CSF officers, who wasted no time in getting to the crux of the matter.

"Master Skywalker," the more senior of the two asked, "where is your son?"

"I have no idea." Luke replied "why are you looking for him?"

"We are looking for him and a human female in connection with a considerable number of traffic offences committed by a swoop bike ridden by them both."

"Do you have any ideas as to the reason for their actions?" Luke asked them, confused.

"It looked like they had a bunch of Journalists sitting on their tails."

At about this time, in a seedy travellers lodge deep in the lower city, Ben and Vestara were checking into a room. After shaking their pursuers via a vertical dive through a traffic jam, they had orbited the main traveller's hotels, looking for an anonymous establishment where they could spend the night, or at least lie low until they felt it safe to go off to the Skywalker family apartment.

As they pushed open the door to their room, Ben was shocked by what he found.

"This is worth 100 credits?" he muttered to Vestara. The room was small and dank, with only a single dim light, held to the ceiling by two lengths of adhesitape.

"The bed is worse than anything on Kesh I ever slept in." Vestara stated, having sat on the side.

"It'll do." Ben told her. "After all, dad is nowhere nearby; the rooms are soundproofed, probably for this purpose."

Then he kissed her, passionately and deeply. She responded with equal passion, and then they fell backwards onto the bed, already writhing in pleasure, his hands releasing her leggings and sliding inside her tunic as they dropped together.


	2. But it may harm your defence

After several hours trying to find his son, Luke had finally given up on the search and decided that he would try to persuade Ben to give a statement and make himself available for interview without having to him through the under-levels of Coruscant. So he went home.

Early in the morning, the burglar alarm jerked him from his sleep with a blaring klaxon. As he groped for his tunic and lightsaber, he reached out with the force, feeling for the intruders.

Then he relaxed. His quest had informed him that Ben and Vestara were responsible for the alarms sounding, and that they were now lovers in body as well as mind. He still rose from bed, striding down the corridor to the entranceway, where Ben and Vestara stood together, kissing passionately.

As he reached them, he used the Force to cue the lights, surprising both of the teenage members of his household, who had clearly been too engrossed in each other to notice his approach.

"Ben, I assume you have a reason for my exploration of the lower city earlier, particularly in the company of two CSF officers."

"Dad…"

"Any reason, Ben?"

"I didn't want to participate in a news conference this soon after returning to Coruscant."

"And that was sufficient grounds for you to break every kriffing speeder law on Coruscant?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess."

"In that case, Ben Skywalker, you and Vestara are going to give your version of events to the CSF tomorrow, if I have to take you there in stun cuffs. Comprendez?"

"Yes dad."

"Right, get off to bed, Vestara, the guest room is at your disposal if you want it."

As they walked away from him, he reflected on how deep their mutual affection had felt, remembering.

He had known such a love several times over the course of his life, nearly leading him from his path several times. He had been responsible for several of the deaths of his loves, whether by wielding the saber himself, as with Lumiya, who he had loved as Shira Brie, or Mary, who had nearly made him leave behind the rebellion before she was killed in an imperial attack directed at him.

He had been lucky with Mara, until his treacherous nephew turned Sith, Caedus, murdered her. Caedus had killed her to defend himself, he still felt angry towards him because he had killed Mara. Caedus's death two years earlier had not healed the wound left by his wife's death.

Luke was now alone, in a certain way, although he would be able to afford the finest company, but he did not wish to prejudice Ben into thinking most women were for sale, or Vestara into thinking Skywalkers used women for please.

He also definitely felt that prostitutes were unsafe for a figure like him, as they might well bring take vocoders or vibroknives into the bed chamber. After all, he had made quite a few enemies over the years, and journalists were known for adopting a wide variety of disguises to try to acquire a "hot new scandal" about prominent figures. After an attempt to catch him out for buying a stolen speeder, he had only just stayed out of the holonews.

The next day Ben and Vestara had disappeared, along with Ben's speeder. A flimsiplast note had been left pinned to the inside of his door with a shard of what looked like barbed glass. It read:

"Hi dad,

Me and Ves have gone down to give a statement.

Be back soon.

Ben."

Luke realised that his son's disappearance the previous day and that morning had likely had more to do with evading the media than reluctance to give a statement. He knew though that Vestara would probably react badly to CSF investigative officers trying to find anything contradictory in her statement by interrogating her in a relatively impolite manner compared to a desk sergeant. Then he noticed the postscript.

"P.S.: spent some of last night teaching Ves not to Force Choke the investigative officer if he challenged anything she said."

A few hours later Ben's speeder was dropped off by a uniformed officer. Luke was annoyed when he was told that his son had been arrested and charged with fifty counts of dangerous driving and two counts of reckless endangerment. His ward had also been arrested, and was charged with assault, attempted murder and disturbing the peace. He smiled at that, and was secretly surprised his son had not been charged with disturbing the peace, with his inherited tendency towards verbal assaults; he had instead sighed and asked, "When can I visit them?" in a resigned tone.

"Tomorrow," came the curiously flat reply. "They need to be formally questioned before then."

"No." Luke's voice took on a tone of Force command. "I must be there when they are questioned. By law, as they are both minors."

"Tough. We have already questioned and charged them."

Luke was angry enough now to consider Force Choking the officer, but decided to make his displeasure known in person to the man's superior officer.

"Right, you tell your colleagues to keep out of that cell until I arrive, or you and they had better find their chosen manufacturer now."

"That would be assaulting a police officer, Master Skywalker."

It took a real force of will to simply walk inside, rather than Force Choke the officer.


	3. If you do not mentioned when questioned

An hour later, dressed in the robes of a Jedi Grand Master, Luke strode into the front of the police station where the Force told him his son and ward were being held prisoner.

If the station commander was a tiny bit shocked at having a living legend in his outer officer he hid it well, although not from Luke's Force senses. For a second Luke half-smilingly remembered his own youth, when his uncle had visited him in Mos Eisley's lock-up after a bar brawl had turned deadly.

Luke, after enduring repeated bouts of verbal abuse, had thrown a barstool in the direction of the voice, only to hit a bounty hunter ten feet from the target point. Blasters had been drawn on several sides, and Luke had been forced to duck behind the bar. Two beings had been killed, and Luke had been very lucky his uncle had managed to get him off with a caution.

He was shown to the cell Ben and Vestara were locked in. He was slightly satisfied that the cell had four YVH droid guards standing outside it.

He was searched, his Lightsaber was surrendered and then he was admitted. Inside the cell, Ben seemed to be holding up fairly well under the scrutiny, but Vestara was huddled against the far wall, seemingly terrified of being incarcerated in such a harsh cell. Then Ben saw his father's glance and explained, "She thinks every knock on the door or set of footsteps is a detail to take her to a torture chamber."

"Does the CSF have torture chambers?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Unlike GAS."

"They will have inherited all of the old GAG hardware, including the secret chambers."

"I remember your account of those."

"Yeah," Ben smiled slightly, "they would not have made cash out of GAG holidays."

"Definitely not, by your account."

"Anyway, Dad, how long are we in here for?"

"No idea, unfortunately."

"Who's kicking up the fuss?"

"Ambulance chasing lawyers, the cops and the journalists."

"More work for Ven, then."

"Ben, we may not be able to get you off. Are you prepared to go to prison over this, if that is what a jury finds should happen?"

"I don't know. I am obviously bound to obey the laws of Coruscant and the Galactic Republic, but I only broke the law to evade journalists who were responsible for the actual carnage."

"Sixteen journos say you were responsible and two juvenile Jedi claim they weren't. The problem is that Jedi are not the flavour of the month at the moment, so the usual public support is a bit limited. "

"Yeah, I guessed that. Still, at least they aren't on the jury."

"Eight of them have purchased seats on the jury from an anti-Jedi aide."

"The kriffing rodders." Ben suddenly let out a yelp of pain and shock. "The shock shackles seem to be fitted with some sort of voice recognition device that makes swearing painful."

"How long did it take them to put such devices on Vestara?"

"About ten officers."

"There were no fatalities though."

"Seriously?"

"There were no charges of murder against her."

"She must not have tried too hard."

"No Jedi should try to kill others."

"Says the man who blew up the Death Star and who has personally dispatched more Sith and Dark Jedi than Revan ever could."

"Sith are not classed as others," Luke replied, deadpan.

"And how did they ever get shackles on her?"

"By holding a blaster to my head."

"You have evidence?"

"Blaster emitter shaped bruise above my right ear."

Luke reached into his pocket and produced a camera, from a smugglers pouch built into his robe.

"Show me."

Ben twisted round and allowed his bruised head to be photographed.

"What else is in there?"

"Only my Lightsaber along with a code breaker, medpac, mass-nulling clip of water, volume shrinking box of a month's rations and my comlink."

"They need to improve their scanners."

"Your uncle thought it might come in handy."

"Which saber are they messing with in the canteen?"

"My green bladed identical spare, Anyway, I had better return before they lose an arm or something."

"See you in court."

"Jaina may have something to say about that."

"Darkmeld back in action?"

"Not officially. And not if I can stop it."

"Warn her these places have ysalmiri built in these days."

"Good thing I found a fix for that. Of course, it was hacked from my computer without my consent."

"They will be recording us."

"They were. The mike just happened to break."

"Dad!"

"Anyway, visiting time is up. I have to go."

"Ok. See you in court."

"Unfortunately."


	4. Anything which you later rely on

It was now two weeks after Luke visited his son and ward in the CSF blockhouse where they were being held. They were appearing in the high court on Coruscant, thanks to the machinations of the same aide who had sold seats on the jury to journalists. The same Aide had also worked to prevent them receiving bail from the brief pre-trail hearing.

As a result, the media was swarming like flies around a carcass. Luke had repeatedly attempted to have the jury redrawn at random from the pool of jurors, but so far he had failed to have any effect on the eight journalists who had "found" their way onto the jury bench and who were almost certainly planning a conviction of the two for not providing an interview to them. Officially it would be simply convictions for the charges of dangerous driving, but everyone who knew the allegiance of the jurors knew that it would in reality be a false charge.

For Vestara it was likely to be worse, because she would be seen as a Jacen Solo in the making because she had attacked others using Dark Side powers. Luke suspected she might face a life sentence or even the death penalty unless Nawara Ven could somehow get her off.

The State's lawyer, Luke suspected, was being paid for by the press in the hope of punishing him and the two children he was responsible for by securing a conviction.

Luke had picked a prominent position on the public gallery, and watched from it as Vestara and Ben, bound hand and foot using shock shackles, were led into court, followed by Nawara Ven, who had agreed to take the case.

During an interval, when the journalists were planning their next move, Luke received a call from someone he had been hoping would call. The call was from Ghent. The slicer had definitely come up with the goods this time. He had hacked into Coruscant's traficam databanks and removed the necessary footage of the pursuit of the two young Jedi.

Seconds later a confused seeming mouse droid carrying a data card bumped into his foot. He loaded it into his datapad and smiled, it contained all of the data from Ghent, along with a rather unusual set of uncut camera recordings from the journalists on the jury. He smiled, and knew that the judge could and would discount jurors whose findings were in conflict with the evidence.

When the court reconvened after about three hours Luke was ready. As soon as it was possible he requested access to the witness stand as the bearer of important new evidence.

Once he had been sworn in as a witness, he delivered his evidence.

"Your Honour, as a party who is responsible for the two young defendants, I have been conducting my own information gathering operation related to the case.

Among my sources was a slicer who managed to find some evidence that suggests that the defendants are only guilty of the offences committed at the police station, as the individuals who bought the charges may have been involved in the offences and have committed several of the offences laid down against my son and ward.

The main tape on this datapad shows the individuals in question committing the driving offenses and causing or being involved with the cause of the various collisions and accidents, while my son and ward avoided the collisions.

There is also quite an interesting voice based recording retrieved from a waiting room within this building where eight of today's jurors decided the outcome of the entire case without listening to the evidence."

"You have the names of these false jurors?"

"Yes, your honour."

"Please provide them."

"Javis Tyrr, Tablis Scop, Tor Rie, Bia Sed, Liang Basted, Slim Ebal, Per Juri and Fals Convition."

"Will the named jurors please stand up?"

Luke smiled as he noticed the various looks on the faces of the various members of the jury who were forced by the judge to stand up. They ranged from hatred, from the usually suave Tyrr, to resignation from the others. Suddenly Tyrr started to speak.

"Your Honour, I would impress on you that this "evidence" has not been proven, and was almost certainly attained illegally, and therefore cannot be used in court."

"Mr Tyrr, please return to your seat. Whether the evidence is accurate or not will be decided by myself and two other judges. Master Skywalker, if this evidence proves to have been concocted, it will be you on trial for perjury, and the sentance will be severe, and may increase the sentance for this case also. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Your Honour."

"Good. Warden, take the named jurors into another room; Hold them there until the accuracy or otherwise of this evidence has been confirmed."

"Sir."

As soon as the jurors had been led from the room, the court room began clamouring for more information. The judge dispensed the minimum amount of information, saying there had been an unforeseen delay before adjourning the court.

For Luke, it was a victory of sorts, as he had hopefully managed to remove those who were not interested in the case from the courtroom, purely using the power of evidence, but he did not yet know whether he would ultimately succeed in effecting the removal of bias from the courtroom.

Once he had briefly discussed with the judge, a large Twi'lek male, called Koshak Eyan, how he had acquired his evidence, he decided to visit the cells where his son and ward where being held, pending transfer to the quarters they had shared for the last fortnight.

After surrendering his lightsaber to the court guard, he was allowed inside.

On the narrow, hard bench, the two occupants of the cell where huddled next to each other, Vestara looking and feeling fairly scared, while Ben was holding her close, trying to comfort her. Both of them still had the shock shackles they had worn while in the courtroom proper fastened around their ankles, but their hands had been freed once they were in the cell. Luke briefly extended his presence in the Force, the Jedi equivalent to a polite cough. As they looked up, he sensed surprise radiating from both of them. Ben was the first to speak.

"Dad," he choked out "what are you doing here?"

"Just keeping an eye on the pair of you." Luke answered, smiling

"I could complain about the food and accommodation, but I think you can guess how low quality they are."

"Indeed." Luke fought down the urge to smile, as his son's sense of humour seemed unaffected by the short prison stay. "Vestara may not be holding up well however." Luke continued.

"They abused her several times." Ben told his father. "it was minor stuff, just comments about thumbscrews and racks"

"Those affected her badly?"

"Have they let us go, Master Skywalker? have you come to take us home?" Vestara suddenly asked, sounding strangely subdued

"Vestara, sadly I cannot. You are still on trial for attempted murder, even if the traffic offences are dropped." Luke told her gently

"She needs help. Somehow, being imprisoned like this has affected her." Ben told his father.

"The Prison Psychologist has not been able to help?"

"Someone stopped him from visiting us."

"Look, you just need to hold out, and then the jury should find you Not Guilty." Luke told her, concealing his pessimism with the Force.

"I just hope I'm out soon." she replied

Far above, echoing through the corridors, Luke heard the announcement that the court was back in session. He patted both of them on the shoulder and left the cell.


	5. In Court, Anything you do say

this chapter is a work in progress, and will be regularly updated

* * *

><p>As Luke settled back into his seat in the public gallery, he watched as the turbolift providing access to the dock rose. Ben, with his hands somehow still free, was standing with one arm around a fully restrained Vestara's shoulders.<p>

After a ten minute wait, the usher called "All rise" and the judge entered the room looking extremely angry, and feeling even more so through the force. He did not waste time.

Getting straight to the point, he grated ". Ben Skywalker, you are discharged from this court, as the case against you has collapsed. Vestara Khai, I am dropping the charges against you concerning the driving offences. However, you are still charged with four counts of attempted murder, six counts of assault and with a breach of the peace."

"Furthermore the eight members of this jury named by Grandmaster Skywalker have been discharged from the jury, and will be tried for contempt of court, attempting to pervert the course of justice and will be questioned over corruption offences pertaining to a currently unidentified government aide,. The remaining four jurors will be retained, and eight new jurors will be selected. This court is adjourned until the jury is complete."

The usher called again, "All rise." And the judge departed the room.

After the press had swarmed out of the courtroom, Luke went to collect Ben from the waiting room.

As Luke walked in, ben rose and said "Thanks for getting me off, dad. Is there any chance of them letting Ves go?"

"No, Ben, there isn't," Luke replied, "You were only charged with driving offences committed by someone else. She's charged with the attempted murder of four police officers, among other offences."

"I will be there though. Whatever happens."

"I would hope so, ben. Now, let's get home, that trial will begin in the morning most likely."

When they got back, a judicial speeder was parked in the apartment's landing bay. Both of them could feel Vestara inside, and Ben could barely contain himself. As they got landed, the driver's door opened, and, judge Eyan, got out, dressed in a traffic officer's uniform.

"Master Skywalker," he began, "having reviewed the evidence and after arguing with the attorney general, I have managed to successfully drop the charges against Vestara. I used the simple logic that if she had not been charged with traffic offences she had not committed, she would not have committed the additional crimes she was charged with. He agreed, surprisingly."

"Thank you, judge," Luke replied "You took it upon yourself to return her. Why"

"Because, I am ashamed to admit, I would not have trusted an officer from this area to do so, seeing as it was their precinct house she smashed up a little."

After declining a cup of caf or a meal, the judge wedged himself into the pursuit speeder's cab and set off.

As he went back into the kitchen, Luke caught sight of the red squadron X-wing he had stapled to the kitchen calendar as a reminder about the annual Rogue reunion. The event was not welcomed by the CSF, after a 'dispute' between two inebriated pilots and an even more inebriated Aqualish had demolished a cantina's bar area, three speeders, and a squad of CSF officers sent to quell the disturbance.

He was always summoned to attend by Wedge, who saw it as a sacrilege if the man who blew the first Death Star did not attend the event.

For Luke, it was merely a distraction, for the simple reason that, ultimately, his old comrades were still small children at heart, even if they did understand the mechanics of the new cannon power booster Blastech had just designed. As a result, he generally wandered off before the formal dinner.

This time, wedge had commed the day before, and Luke was going to make everyone very happy. As he had a days' notice, and old rogues had higher clearances than most veterans, he had sourced a Stealth-X from the temple hangers.

He also had a dummy folded into the cargo compartment, along with an old flight suit from thirty years before. His Death Star suit had been lost to time during a dozen actions that had eventually left it charred, torn, and partially melted, and had been replaced with this suit, which had spent most of it's time in a wardrobe on Coruscant, before being hurled in a bag as Coruscant was evacuated. It had then spent a decade in the hold of the Jade Shadow, before being found while he was on his quest to destroy Abeloth. his first helmet, which had survived, was in the cargo compartment as well.

As the starfighter's engine note faded, Ben pulled open his bedside table, and withdrew a pair of stun-cuffs he had flinched from the Jade Shadow's security locker when they disembarked. Then he reached over to a groggy Vestara and nudged her awake, before binding her wrists and pulling her on top of him.


	6. May be given in evidence against you

this chapter is a work in progress, and as such will be updated regularly

* * *

><p>As his starfighter approached the lobby access gates, Luke activated the com to call the control room<p>

"Stealth-X to Meridian control, request docking clearance for conference hall podium, over."

After the tell-tale clatter of a man falling out of his chair and getting drenched in caf, the control room replied "Meridian control to Stealth-X pilot, please activate your transponder next time. Your docking clearance is granted. Control out."

After half an hour or so, Luke had wandered off to find a caf dispenser. Almost as soon as he turned the corner, two men, both dressed in rebellion-era flight suits dashed out from behind a colonnade carrying a large satchel and, after checking the coast was clear, they disabled the fighters astromech droid by placing it the wrong way up in a locker before leaving a nearby bin on the top of the container.

With the droid out of the way, the satchel bearer and his partner in crime quickly set about placing booby traps in the fighter's cockpit. Unfortunately for the two pranksters, the caf dispenser in the corridor outside the conference centre had been unjinxed by the maintenance team by the time Luke arrived, and so he returned to find Wedge Antilles hard at work, planting dyebombs, fartpads and even slugthrower caps in the cockpit, while Tycho added the standard adornment of red stripes with a sprayer and a stencil, determined that no Rogue piloted craft should be without its stripes.

After a brief period of laughter, Luke managed to stop, and proceeded to lecture them. "I know it looks like an X-wing, Wedge, but it takes ten droid hours per minute flown to get that thing operational again. The last person to set off a blasted smoke bomb was forced to clean every circuit with a toothbrush by the hanger supervisor." Even after Luke's tirade, they looked little more repentant than a group of starfighter academy pranksters caught sabotaging an instructor's craft.

"So, what I am going to do is as follows; I will go get another cup of caf while you untrap my fighter. Even one solitary cap will result in both of you being made to saniscrucb the cockpit, supervised by a Wookie. Any Questions? No? Good. And Tycho."

"Yes, Master Skywalker?"

"Please finish the paintjob, then make sure you let Artoo out of that storage bin. Then run."

After Luke had gone for a second cup of caf, Wedge set to work untrapping the cockpit, while Tycho, taking Luke's advice, legged it as soon as he removed the bin. To his extreme credit, he got a full twenty metres before Artoo caught up with him, and began using his ronto prod in chastisement.

* * *

><p>After both Ben and Vestara had discovered Ben's extreme negligence in forgetting to disconnect the shock pads in Vestara's stuncuffs, they adjourned to the main lounge area, discarding the cuffs into a cupboard for later modification.<p>

After booting up the holo, they were surprised to discover that their acquittal was no longer main headline news, but was simply connected to another case.

"...and we conclude our court coverage with news from the prosecution of 8 former jurors, including disgraced former journalist Javis Tyrr, who are all charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and Juror Misconduct. All eight of the accused have pleaded guilty to the charges against them. sentencing will be tomorrow. whether or not their intended victims will be in court remains to be seen. alia copak out"

"Ves," Ben asked once the news had sunk in, "would you be amenable to a celebration?"

"What do you have in mind?" she asked

"A meal at a nice little restaurant, maybe low energy lighting and candles on the table."

"Are you old enough to be allowed to buy drinks here on Coruscant?"

"Who's going to ask a robed up Jedi if he's allowed to drink?"

"Very devious."

He smiled."I have to keep up with you." He kissed her gently, before leaning away to snag his comlink.

~0~

Luke broke high, circling in onto the T-65 from above and behind, relying on his craft's stealth abilities to avoid being detected by Wedge, his opponent, either visually or on sensors. This was the first time the Jedi master had advanced beyond the quarter-finals in the Rogue sim-dogfighting tournament, due to the raw skill element being far more important and necessary than it was in a live dogfight, where his force instincts could level the battlefield. To his frustration he didn't begin to approach having the sheer combat hours any of the more 'experienced' pilots boasted, despite being one of the greatest combat flyers in the galaxy.

Easing onto his target carefully, he was astonished when the Correlian threw his starfighter into a dive, twisting around until he was almost directly targeting Luke. The Jedi master twisted his figher to one side, spiralling around a stream of bolts before sending his own slashing through the vintage fighter's shields, tearing apart the cockpit, before the simulator faded to black, indicating mission accomplished.

Hauling himself out of the head to head simulator, he was greeted with a stein of lomin ale, along with a TIE Defender ion cannon emmitor, mounted on a Alderaanian teak base. Somehow, the trinket had ended up as the squadron championship trophy. Then he was pulled into the crowd, and lost track of time.

~0~

Settling into one of the booths in a small, up-market restaurant called Gav, Ben shared a secret smile with Vestara, followed almost immediately by a lecherous wink, to which she responded with a coy smile, a flirt of her hair, and a wink of her own.

The starter was a selection of Mantellian crustations, served with a light white wine. The meal was progressing along planned lines, until Ben suddenly twisted a chunk of prawn of his girlfriend's fork, aiming it, along with a dozen other chunks of the same kind, into a suddenly conjured evidence bag, just as he hit the emergency button on his comlink and spoke into it.

"Security, please." He said, before pausing. "Hi, I'm in the Gav, seafood restaurant up in the manari mountains area, and I think someone just tried to poison me and my girlfriend. I just managed to stop her eating a Mantellian fire prawn. Yes, she is human, and so am I. On your way, thanks. We're the corner booth at the back of the restaurant."


	7. Unexpected delivery

I apologize for all of the continuity errors between this work and the canon universe.

These are because this story has been a work in progress for a while and as such, facts have changed with each further book in the Fate of The Jedi series.

i also apologise for the title sequence, as this chapter does not contain any legal stuff

* * *

><p>Two Days Later<p>

As Vestara, dressed in formal clothing, consisting of a dark, simple jacket and matching leggings strode up the temple steps; she was shocked by how daunting the approach was to a supplicant. The transparisteel façade gleamed overwhelmingly, the steps seemed almost unending and the regular statues of ancient Jedi heroes constantly reminded her that this was truly hallowed ground upon which she trod.

As she passed through the vast doorway, the sudden gloom gave her pause, for a heartbeat of hesitation. Inside, there was an indistinct mass of Jedi of all ranks, from Luke himself, dressed in his formal grand masters robes, to the newest apprentice on Coruscant; it seemed every trained force user in the galaxy had gathered at the temple to witness her formal entry of the Jedi Order.

Without further hesitation, she dropped to her knees in front of the assembled Jedi, and said "Without hesitation, reserve or regret, I give myself fully to the Jedi Order. I intend my service to redeem my sins against the galaxy."

"I accept your pledge, Apprentice Khai." Luke replied. "You will learn under Master Katarn, until he deems you ready to advance to Knighthood, despite and because of your abilities. Furthermore, he has the right to cause any discomfort or injury to you he deems appropriate, short of removing a limb deliberately, criminal abuse, or acts that I deem high-end torture against you."

"Yes, Master Skywalker."

"Thank you, Apprentice Khai. Now, there is one last thing I require of you."

"Which is, Master Skywalker?"

"Your lightsaber. It is not an appropriate weapon for you to carry at this moment in time."

Wordlessly, she removed it from her belt and handed it to him hilt first.

"This is not a statement about you, Vestara. No apprentice carries a lightsaber they have not constructed themselves, as a test of skill with the Force. You have the aptitude, and master Katarn will give you the opportunity quickly. Now, attend upon your master."

Vestara immediately rose and headed off towards the masters quarters.

As Ben watched Vestara recede, he gave his father a look that was equally loathing and loving.

"Ben, I know how you feel about Vestara, but…"

"But what, dad? I can live without her, but I believed you were going to train her to be a Jedi Knight in mind and action, not Master Katarn."

"Master Katarn does not have any preconceptions about her, unlike both of us, Ben. You love her, and I both accept and understand that, and I owe her my life several times over. That would affect our or my training of her. It would also have been very inappropriate for you to have her as your apprentice. There is a rule about relationships between knights and their apprentices."

"How long until her Knighthood is granted?"

"That depends on her and Master Katarn."

As she entered her new Master's chambers, Vestara was somewhat shocked by the Spartan and ordered nature of the room, with few personal possessions on view

As her new master entered the room, Vestara dropped to one knee and said "Greetings Master."

The reply surprised her slightly, "get up, Vestara. And please remember to address me as Kyle, not master Katarn or master, regardless of your upbringing."

As she looked at him open mouthed, he continued, "I was assigned your training by Master Skywalker himself, mostly on the basis of the fact that I have experience at dealing with and training redeemed Sith, such as yourself. Furthermore, I am able to be entirely objective about your training, and we start at day one. Please demonstrate the basic force abilities."

With a look suggesting that he was slighting her, she picked up the largest object in the room, and threw it at him using the Force. He deftly deflected it at her, then grimaced when she dodged, generating a large dent in his wall.

"Good. That is how you were meant to react." He smiled. "I won't insult you with further tests of initiate skills. Your next task is to repair the damage to my wall, then make some caf."

After she had carried out that task, her master had her meditate alongside him.

"You really love ben, don't you Vestara."

"Yes, she replied, I do love him."

"How much?"

"As much as I loved my mother"

"I'm sorry about your loss. From the way you felt, you know she's dead and blame yourself."

"She was killed by Abeloth when she destroyed Tahv."

"And you blame yourself because?"

"Without me, Abeloth would not have been on Kesh, never mind in Tahv."

"It's not your fault, Vestara. And I would like you to accompany me to the medcenter."

"why?"

"I… think it is best if you find out in the medcenter"

"ok… Right."

That night, as Ben drove her back to the Skywalker apartment, he commented, "I felt the thud from Master Katarn's quarters in dad's office. There was a 30 credit sweepstake on what you had thrown going around in the refectory."

"It was a stone icon." She smiled. "I threw it at him, he threw it back, and I got out of the way."

"Rule number one, Ves; killing your master can lead to expulsion from the order. Stick to datapads next time." He laid his hand on her arm. "Keep it up, Ves. He won't kill you."

"Your dad might though."

"Only if we forget protection"

"Ben…"

"Ves?"

"Just how much do you love me?"

"Enough to spend my entire life with you."

She smiled. "Good."

"Why?" she could feel his alarm through the force"

"I'm pregnant"


	8. of bad news and good

Vestara was not prepared for the storm of emotions that issued from Ben at her pronouncement. Shock was first, followed by alarm, nerves and pleasure in a nanosecond.

"You're kidding me, Ves. How can you know? We didn't even do it 'til a fortnight ago."

"Master Katarn was probing me with the Force, trying to find out which of the three things I had just told him had been untruthful. He suddenly gasped and asked me, gently, to accompany him to the temple medcenter."

"Dad's going to be pleased about this."

"You sure he won't kill me?"

"Ves, like all grandparents, he will obey the golden rule: no killing your first grandchild before birth."

"That was not how it was on Kesh."

"This ain't Kesh, Ves, and you know it."

When Ben's parking of his speeder appeared far more haphazard than usual, Luke knew something was wrong. He had felt a pulse of shock rock through the Force minutes previously, and his first thought, the thought of a man who had spent his entire life on the front line, was that they had been attacked. The fact that Ben, as he flipped from the speeder, had looked shell-shocked, had prompted him to reach for the trauma-pak, and begin sprinting down the corridor, grabbing his comlink as he did so.

When he arrived, though, the fact that Vestara was not bleeding or dying prompted him to speak bluntly. "Ben, what the kriff has happened?" he demanded of his son

"You're not going to believe this dad," Ben began. "I'm going to be a father." He hugged Vestara and kissed her.

Luke, however, was somewhat unimpressed.

"Damm it, Ben. Comm ahead next time, or you will need a blasted med-speeder for me. I nearly had a heart attack when you arrived."

"Dad, what about the congratulations bit?"

"When I was your age, Ben Skywalker, kriffing about like you and Vestara have been, even with protection, would have been considered shocking and immoral behaviour, especially without any announced plans. The fact she's now pregnant, in my day, would have just made it worse, as far as adults were concerned."

"Dad, I…"

"Never meant her to get knocked up with your kid?"

"There was no plan involved, just both of us enjoying each other's company."

"Master Skywalker," Vestara broke in. "would it be best if I just…" suddenly she broke into tears.

"No, Vestara. I won't ask that of you. No father would. If I had even mentioned that to Mara…" he paused, and both of the Ben and Vestara felt a wave of melancholy pass through the Force. "Well, she would have treated that idea with all the scorn it deserves. Life is too precious to throw away for convenience."

At their askance looks to each other, Luke continued, "However, my approval comes with a big catch. You two, despite your ages, are going to be married before the child is born."

Ben was visibly shocked, and his Force presence betrayed his alarm, not at marrying Vestara, but at the concept of marriage at his age.

"Dad, I…" he tailed off sheepishly at his fathers look.

"Any questions, Ben Skywalker?" Luke challenged.

"No."

"Vestara?"

"No issues, master Skywalker. None at all."

"Good. Unlike in a novel I read years ago, I will not be marching you to the nearest chapel at saberpoint to sort this out. I will leave it as a test of your capabilities to organise your own wedding"

As Luke left the room, extending a sense of indignation into the Force, Ben simply hugged Vestara, and muttered in her ear. "We need to think of a name."

"I'll handle baby related issues. You are more accepted here, and can quite easily organise things, and avoid court hearings if things come up." She replied.

"I know all about that. Only Solos can find more trouble than Skywalkers by accident."

"So you told me," she said, pulling him close. "I hope I can break that trend."

"Don't count on it, Ves."

Then he kissed her, fully on the lips. They stood, embraced, for about ten seconds before breaking off.

"I need to go see a man about a ring." He whispered to her, before flipping into his speeder and zooming off.

By the time Luke had reached his bedroom, he could not hold in the laughter he had been concealing in the force. After several minutes, his plan for solving a drought on Haffrin seemed a lot less important than the drama in his own household.

"Only a Skywalker," he told himself. "Only a Skywalker could manage to create a mess this size out of such whole cloth. You leave one alone with a girl, and three weeks later, you've got a mess the size of a Hutt that's fallen from a high walkway." He smiled. "Still, it could be worse though, they could both still be in custody."

As Ben parked his speeder however, he little knew that someone, or something to be more precise, was watching him through the scope of a sharpshooter's longrifle, and was only waiting for him to stand still for a few seconds before taking the shot.

* * *

><p>Don't panic. In his future, death is not.<p> 


	9. Worse news

This chapter is for everyone who has been requesting an update for a very long time. I've had to re-read the story myself to get it back in my head, but here goes...

The first sign of trouble Ben had was a sudden force-urge to duck. As he dropped, relying implicitly on the warning, a crimson line burned its way across the sky from a building close to a kilometre away, missing his skull by centimetres, before punching into a parked airspeeder, detonating a drive element and sending shrapnel everywhere, in the deadly form of durasteel knives up to an inch long and travelling at close to mach one as they scythed into the crowded street. Then the screaming began.

In seconds, Ben was back on his feet, lightsaber lit and glancing around for the attacker as he simultaneously pushed his sphere of responsibility out around him, blocking out the pain and terror near him with an conscious effort, before finding his attacker, just before it sent a second bolt screaming towards him, interposing his lightsaber between the bolt and his body without thought, meeting it at exactly one hundred and eighty degrees, sending the pulse of coherent light tearing back across the distance.

The shot caught the assassin droid just below the thorax as it rose, satisfied it had killed its target. The round burned into a actuator hub, blowing the circuits inside the droid before any surge protections coukd trigger, and triggering a suicide charge next to the droid's processor, instantly wiping the memory and blowing the droid into very tiny fragments.

As soon as target destroyed registered for Ben, he shut down his lightsaber, before tearing a medpack from his temple utility belt and moving to help.

~0~

Vestara was meditating, watching the holonews as a background as she attempted to focus onto a single tone or colour and hold that in her mind, along with a single still image. The exercise had been going well, until suddenly a breaking news story was run.

"Breaking news just in." The newsreader announced. "There has in the last few minutes been an explosion in the galactic market area of Coruscant. Casualty reports are yet to become clear, but it appears a red airspeeder was the source of the blast. Whether this is an accident or a terrorist attack by as yet unknown individuals remains to be seen. Our news-crews are on their way to the scene right now. We will be keeping you up to date on this story as more facts become clear." The camera cut to a live shot, showing smoke rising from a small plaza.

Vestara just felt sick. "Ben..." she whispered, feeling like she'd been punched in the gut.

Then her brand-new comlink sounded, using the cheesy ewok song Ben had selected as his personal caller tone on the device.

Nervously, she accepted the call.

It was Ben.

"Ves, I'm fine." He said. "I've got some shrapnel in me, but it's only small fragments. The cops have just arrived, and so have the ambulances. I've been helping where I can, but things are up in the air at the moment, and I don't know if I'm still in danger."

"What?" She asked, horrified. "Why would you still be at risk?"

"This wasn't an accident or a intentionally lethal attack. I'm supposed to have a hole in the side of my head, and no-one else should have been injured. Unfortunately, I ducked, and the bolt hit whatever exploded. The fire service are making it safe now, but I won't be getting that ring today. Kriff, newsies." He finished, before ending the call.

"Jedi Skywalker," she heard coming from the holo. "You appear to have been near or at the epicentre of this event. What did you see?"

"I saw a blast. I've got some holes in me, but they missed anything vital. I've been helping the wounded." He finished, with a meaningful glance at the talking head. "I can't tell you anything else."

Frustrated, the reporter replied "I'll let you get back to it, then.", before turning away, looking for a more cooperative interviewee to give them some lurid details.

Sickened, Vestara turned off the news, hoping Ben could get home to her soon.


	10. Happenings

Luke had also been watching the news, and he hurried through from his office, his lightsaber in his hand, rather than on his belt, to collect Vestara.

"Ben's been thrown into an ambo. They're on their way to Central Plaza, despite his request for them to head for the temple instead. Despite what he said on the news, he's hurt quite seriously. Some of the shrapnel has embedded itself in a lung, and one piece shows as being lodged between two vertebrae, so they need to get it out as soon as they possibly can. He called me just after he called you. An assassin droid took a shot at him, and missed, before he batted a second one straight back at." Luke told her, as they hurried through to the speeder garage.

Unfortunately, there was only the StealthX trainer he'd taken to the Rogue reunion do just days earlier, as his speeder had been sold while they were gone, in an authorized charity auction to raise money for anti-slavery groups. Ben's was either in pieces or parked somewhere, leaving them little option but to use the trainer to get to the hospital.

Vestara dropped into the forward cockpit, designed for the instructee to use during familiarisation training, surprised by the simplicity, compared to ship or the other small craft she'd flown with the sith. Without thinking, she fastened the simple five point harness, before pulling on a helmet Luke had handed her on their way through the house.

She very much knew something of her father-in-law-to-be's reputation as a pilot. She'd seen the Yavin recording on a documentary she'd found on the holonet: Greatest Combat Flights, usually from gun cameras and camera mounts, and the flight down the trench had been No.2, after Wedge Antilles' death star run over endor. Forty years of semi-constant practice had honed his natural skills to a fine degree she could never imagine being possible, even while riding in his front seat, cutting through the traffic like a hawkbat, rarely staying in lane more than a few seconds at a time, and despite the fighter's size, never coming close to a collision.

"Do you always drive like this?" She asked him, after he'd taken a one hundred degree turn on one wingtip, barely using two lengths of the craft to make the manoeuvre.

"Occasionally." He replied. "Usually there's something behind me, but this is an emergency." He told her, dropping into what looked like a series of sanitation pipes, barely a foot wider than the starfighter.

To her surprise, they avoided a sewer grate by inches, and rolled out into a intersection, with the hospital just across the maze of speeders and air-vans.

"Master Skywalker..." she said, just before a red lamp flashed on her HUD, and Luke KI opened the taps on the main engines, rather than the comparatively sedate repulsorlift, sending them screaming into the busy traffic. Suddenly, he broke high, then rolled right and down, jinking between an pair of freight carriers, before looping over them.

"Crap," he said, almost to himself, before dropping like a stone, then flying up the face of a spacescraper, just as one of the external fittings suddenly exploded, and she realised why he'd been flying so dangerously.

"Tailchaser." He confirmed, after a moment. "Some sort of imp ASM."

"ASM?" She asked, not recognising the term.

"Anti-Starfighter Missile. It would have gone straight through this thing's shields.

Bringing the snubfighter around, he made straight for a hospital docking bay, sideslipping and evading constantly to make getting a second shot impossible. Despite several lights flashing on then off repeatedly on a cockpit repeater display, causing an even nore violent manoeuvre, the fighter landed safely, with armed guards running into the docking bay and deploying a anti-missle laser to screen the entrance.

"The building caters for heads of state and senators when they are on Coruscant." Luke explained at the girl's surprised look. "They need the security."

"And my... countrymen?" She replied, using the obscure term intentionally.

"There's a secure sub-basement well away from anything critical. Five Jedi knights and a squad of special forces troopers are on duty twenty-four seven. The room is directly above a ysalamir colony, which gives a two-hundred meter exclusion zone. They won't escape." He tried not to notice the former sith girl's shudder of relief, although she suddenly pressed something into his hand.

"Vestara, why have you handed me a pair of stun-cuffs?" He asked, confused, especially when she presented her wrists for cuffing.

"I'm not a republic citizen. I'm in a building holding a number of beings I might consider allies. I need to be secured."

"Hmmmm." The Jedi master responded, as he clapped the restraints around her wrists. "I think you just like being in them, personally." Had he not been a Jedi, he wouldn't have felt the slight pulse of embarrassment at his statement. He just sighed. There was no harm in it, even if she did enjoy it.

Ben's room was guarded by a fully robed Jedi knight, along with three hospital guards.

"Jaden." Luke greeted the man. "This is Vestara. She put the cuffs on her own wrists."

"I guess I can let Ben's girlfriend and father through," the veteran knight responded. "I know exactly how much fun you two have been having," he continued. "And there will be no funny business while I talk shop with master Skywalker."

"Yes, Jedi Korr." Vestara responded, feeling the cuffs suddenly get an awful lot more confining. She stepped into the room, leaving Luke and Jaden to talk.

"How are you feeling?" Luke asked after a moment.

"Better than I did." Jaden replied. "I'm not sure essence transfer is a power any Jedi should benefit from, from all Tionne's stories of the emperor, but it has worked, for now."

"Do you want some sessions with Clighal?"

"It'd be a good thing." Jaden responded after a moment. "I could do with someone to talk things through with."

"I'll have a chat with her, then" Luke replied, before the conversation turned to less savage times.

-000-

Stepping into her boyfriend's hospital room was like stepping onto a different planet for Vestara. The only sound was his steady, smooth and relaxed breathing, although she could see monitors pulsing with light elsewhere, suggesting heartbeat monitoring.

On impluse, she kissed Ben full on the lips, slightly shaken by the lack of a response or his arms closing around her shoulders, keeping her safe from her demons. She still woke up from dreaming she was back in the cell she'd been held in when she and Ben were arrested, feeling totally powerless with her arms and legs fettered, trapping her in a tiny area of floor. He knew, and when she woke up sobbing, she'd feel his arms loop around her shoulders, and a gentle kiss would blow away the demons.

Suddenly, his arms did close around her shoulders, before their eyes met, hazel brown staring into sky blue, and all was right in the world.

A/N. Thank you BenVestaraAwesome and Imperator277 for reviewing this fic. Despite my post times, I am a British author, although I appreciate the sentiment of wishing me a good thanksgiving. Please give me reviews. I like hearing people's thoughts on any of my works.

Firecadet


End file.
